The present invention relates generally to animal feeding devices and, more particularly, to a rotary feed dispensing apparatus configured to selectively eject stored feed into the air so as to provide feed to animals.
Livestock are often fed from feeding devices such as hay troughs, barrels that hold large quantities of grain or other feed, or even from feed dumped on the ground. Deer and other animals may be fed using centrifugal feeders that distribute feed by distributing it in a 360 degree area. In addition, rotary feeders use an impellor assembly to throw feed into the air in a more focused area.
Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, rotary feeders sometimes jam when the feed material becomes damp and clumpy or includes foreign objects that are unable to be ejected by the impellors. More particularly, clumpy feed material may become lodged in a feed transmission channel and, as a result, feed is not even received into the impellors and is not ejected into the air. Further, clumpy feed material already in an impellor assembly my cause the impellors to jam which, in turn, may cause the motor to burn up.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a rotary dispensing apparatus for selectively ejecting stored feed into the ambient air. Further, it would be desirable to have a rotary dispensing apparatus having a vibrator for inhibiting clumping of feed in a transmission feed channel that extends between a feed reservoir and a rotary dispenser. In addition, it would be desirable to have a rotary dispensing apparatus in which feed dispensing impellors have pivotal ends that will not jam if clumpy feed is encountered.